[Hot Tabasco]

Enforcing discipline for its own sake at the cost of a championship is...lots of things, none of them positive.

Allowing players to violate team rules is...lots of things, none of them positive......You don't tell your coach screw you, I'm staying out late, when he sets a curfew......

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Allowing players to violate team rules is...lots of things, none of them positive......You don't tell your coach screw you, I'm staying out late, when he sets a curfew......

This isn't school, or the armed forces - the NFL is a business, and the ultimate goal of that business is to win the Super Bowl. That's why the coaches institute rules, including curfews - so they can win, and ultimately win the Super Bowl.

If Belichik benched Butler solely for disciplinary reasons, he lost sight of the big picture and why he's got a job. There were plenty of ways to punish Butler for breaking rules which would not involve weakening his own team in the one game that all those rules are aimed at reaching in the first place.